| It is necessary in the study of Karma-Yoga to | | | | conscience. But what is it that makes an act |
| know what duty is. If I have to do something | | | | a duty? If a Christian finds a piece of beef |
| I must first know that it is my duty, and | | | | before him and does not eat it to save his |
| then I can do it. The idea of duty again is | | | | own life, or will not give it to save the |
| different in different nations. The | | | | life of another man, he is sure to feel that |
| Mohammedan says what is written in his book, | | | | he has not done his duty. |
| the Koran, is his duty; the Hindu says what | | | | |
| is in the Vedas is his duty; and the | | | | But if a Hindu dares to eat that piece of |
| Christian says what is in the Bible is his | | | | beef or to give it to another Hindu, he is |
| duty. We find that there are varied ideas of | | | | equally sure to feel that he too has not done |
| duty, differing according to different states | | | | his duty; the Hindu's training and education |
| in life, different historical periods and | | | | make him feel that way. In the last century |
| different nations. The term "duty", like | | | | there were notorious bands of robbers in |
| every other universal abstract term, is | | | | India called thugs; they thought it their |
| impossible clearly to define; we can only get | | | | duty to kill any man they could and take away |
| an idea of it by knowing its practical | | | | his money; the larger the number of men they |
| operations and results. | | | | killed, the better they thought they were. |
| | | | Ordinarily if a man goes out into the street |
| When certain things occur before us, we have | | | | and shoots down another man, he is apt to |
| all a natural or trained impulse to act in a | | | | feel sorry for it, thinking that he has done |
| certain manner towards them; when this | | | | wrong. But if the very same man, as a soldier |
| impulse comes, the mind begins to think about | | | | in his regiment, kills not one but twenty, he |
| the situation. Sometimes it thinks that it is | | | | is certain to feel glad and think that he has |
| good to act in a particular manner under the | | | | done his duty remarkable well. Therefore we |
| given conditions; at other times it thinks | | | | see that it is not the thing done that |
| that it is wrong to act in the same manner | | | | defines a duty. To give an objective |
| even in the very same circumstances. The | | | | definition of duty is thus entirely |
| ordinary idea of duty everywhere is that | | | | impossible. Yet there is duty from the |
| every good man follows the dictates of his | | | | subjective side. |